Turkey votes : EVET !

Yesterday Turkey made a historic victory, through the change of their Constitution. A huge political victory for PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan who sees himself even more strengthen. For us in Cafebabel Greece a huge political experiment is happening in our neighbouring country and somehow Europe has to show solidarity for a country that makes so much progress in order to join the EU.

Certainly the road is long..but it seems that Turkey is determined to follow it..

Six
out of ten Turks who went to the polls yesterday voted for the change of the
Turkish Constitutional proposed by the government, a result which is a
crucial political victory for the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
For change voted for 58% of the electorate, while participation in the process reached 77%.

''A defeat for supporters of
military coups''. said R.
T. Erdogan when he he was asked to comment on the results.

The
Turkish analysts believe that such results will strengthen the ruling
party for the upcoming elections in 2011, indicating that pro-reform voters came also from the opposition.

At
the same time, however, some areas seem to follow the influential Kurdish
party which calls for boycott of the referendum on the ground that it
does not promote the rights of Kurds.

The
26 changes proposed by the government are trying to change the spirit of
the Constitution adopted after the coup of 1980.

The
opposition, and particularly the Kemalists, has criticized
provisions stipulating that the government will have a say in selecting
the senior judiciary and denounces an attempt to control the judiciary,
but did not express disagreement with the need for many changes in
general.

To
package of proposed changes to the Constitution increases the
Constitutional Court from 11 to 17, with the Turkish National Assembly
the power to appoint some of them and of a single civil action.

Furthermore,
the jurisdiction of military tribunals is expanded and civil courts
will be able to judge the military for crimes against the constitutional
order (which could
pave the way for prosecution of the coup of 1980).

The
package also allows for employee participation in more than one trade
unions and recognizes the right of collective bargaining for public
employees, and lift the ban on strikes by political motives. The changes also address civil liberties such as privacy and travel restrictions.